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Taxes in the Phoenix Empire
Taxes are only collected by sovereign nobles (see Noble Titles) and form their most important and only ‘acceptable’ source of income. Taxes can only be collected from other nobles within your fief and from guilds running businesses there. Commoners and slaves are never taxed directly, though they may be tolled at gates, bridges or special roads. A special form of taxes is the income ‘harvested’ from serfs. Usually, serfs support their ‘direct’ (lowest ruling, most local) noble in form of a share of their produce and products. Often, guilds are charged by a noble to collect and sell those shares in return for a percentage of the sales. Occasionally, in times of war (or empty coffers), a percentage of serfs can be sold as slaves to both reduce the population as well as bring in some additional cash. As taxes are the lifeblood of the nobility, tax evasion is a crime that is rarely dared and swiftly and harshly punished. Tax fraud Of course, everyone is trying to rip off the Emperor a little. And given the fact that hardly any kind of organized documentation exist, it is well possible to do so. Tax fraud on a large scale, though, requires a significant amount of criminal energy and, like tax evasion, is hardly ever considered worth the trouble. Especially among commoners and nobles, there is a nice network of peer control in effect, as everyone ensures his ‘neighbour’ pays at least as much taxes as one self, and sometimes quite violently so. Tax collectors. Generally, taxes are levied by yearly decree of the profiting noble, as opposed to a fixed and publicly known system of percentages. So while this may be absolutely unfair and inviting any kind of abuse, it is also a system that can instantly be adapted, changed, or skipped all together for one year. So while a ‘bad’ noble can and will use this to mercilessly drain his fief, most others will use their privilege of decision and only take what their subjects can give without cutting too deep. As many harsh and obvious disadvantages a system of hereditary absolutist nobility is, one (rare) advantage is the general emphasis on sustainability over short-term profits. As with so many things, the public view on tax collectors varies with the houses they collect the taxes for. While Dracon collectors are free to make the occasional coin on the side by whatever means they like and are accordingly despised, the dry-as-bones bureaucrats of House van der Meer are disliked at worst, sometimes even silently pitied. Tax Excemption As a sidenote, ‘being exempt from all further taxes for the rest of his life’ is a status the Emperor hands out as highest honour only. It is reserved to those whose deeds for the Empire could not possibly be repaid and symbolizes that the Emperor and thus the Empire is forever indebted and will not dare to make any further demands. Famously, this status has been granted to Phoenix Knights who reached retirement, notably Sir Rage Dracon. Category:Economy Category:Items